


Evergreen

by ant5b



Series: All the Luck in the World [2]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Dadstone AU, Ducktales Family Fic Challenge, both Donald and Della are missing/presumed dead, louie is becoming my fave triplet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 01:58:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13284528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ant5b/pseuds/ant5b
Summary: "We're all we've got, remember?"





	Evergreen

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Ducktales family fic challenge on tumblr!

 

Looking back on it, Gladstone could admit that it had been an argument in the making. 

Even at nine years old, the boys were restless, and wanted more than what their simple life in downtown Duckburg could offer. They would remind him of their mother and uncle in those moments, when they played at being pirate captains and slew vicious sea monsters (played by yours truly) or scaled Mount Neverrest and made friends with a yeti. 

He told the triplets about their family at an early age, nevermind how few were still around. Death was no stranger to Gladstone, but that didn’t meant he was prepared to forget his mother, or Grandma Duck, or his cousins (his best friends). He’d spent enough of his own life alone and ignorant of his family, and would not wish that on his boys. 

However, with honesty came consequences. 

Gladstone told them about Scrooge, one of their few living relatives, to his great chagrin and reluctance.

The triplets only heard good things about their great-uncle, when Gladstone deigned to speak of him, though always tempered with caution. It helped that Scrooge hadn’t adventured in years, remained out of the public eye nearly since the boys could walk, and never called or visited. 

It didn’t stop the boys from idolizing him, despite Gladstone’s best efforts, though they looked up to Della and Donald far more. 

Gladstone never lied to them, _would_ _never_ lie to them as Scrooge had done to him, a decision he’d made when they were still in diapers. But he did omit things, or rather, one thing. 

For all they knew about Scrooge, the daring explorer, they didn’t know their mother and uncle had been his partners. 

If Gladstone could help it, they’d never know. And if Scrooge continued to stay away, it would remain that way. Anything any of his boys did with their lives, whether adventurer or accountant, they’d be safer without Scrooge around. 

But his boys were incorrigible, and as they got older they got better at calling him out for being evasive. 

Louie in particular was turning into a little businessman, with a sharp eye and a sharper tongue. He wasn’t a schemer, at least not in the same way Dewey was, making outlandish plans to fly a rocket to the moon, or Huey, who was methodical but couldn’t keep a secret to save his life. 

His youngest nephew was a mix of practical and devious, and was excellent at keeping secrets. 

Gladstone learned this explicitly when he was cleaning Louie’s room and found, not only a bus schedule, but bus tickets, and a map of Duckburg with a path drawn out in green marker leading to Killmotor Hill and the mansion atop it. 

He’d never been a paranoid gander, his luck practically nullified any possibility of that, but in that moment Gladstone was filled with a very acute sort of terror that he hadn’t known until the boys entered his life. 

Countless scenarios sped through his mind of all the ways Louie might’ve gotten lost or hurt, how someone might’ve snatched him away from them. And perhaps disconcerting in a different fashion was the question of what might have happened if Louie  _ had _ made it to Scrooge unscathed, knocked on the front door of the mansion and introduced himself as the miser’s great-nephew. 

Would Scrooge turn him away, put him in a car and have him returned to Gladstone without so much as a thought to the little family he had left? Would Scrooge return  _ with _ him, if only to see the mockery of a life Gladstone had made for them, criticizing him for counting too much on his luck, for being a poor replacement for Donald and Della?

Or worse yet, would he have accepted Louie into his home happily, and revealed the truths Gladstone had hidden from them? Louie wouldn’t forgive him for the deception, he was certain. 

And if Scrooge welcomed Huey and Dewey too, took them from Gladstone’s paltry care into the mansion he had  _ earned _ , whereas if Gladstone wished to measure up he would have to win one in a contest. 

Terrified by what might’ve happened had he not discovered his nephew’s plans in time, his concerns both reasonable and not, he gathered the papers in his hands and waited for all three triplets to return from school. 

He confronted Louie about it, and that’s when the fighting started. 

“What were you  _ thinking _ , kid?” 

Gladstone had Louie sitting at the kitchen table, the map and bus tickets spread out before them like evidence from a crime scene. His  two other nephews peered through the kitchen doorway, huddled almost out of sight, but Gladstone didn’t pay them any mind at that moment. 

Louie had his hoodie drawn up over his head, and sat with his arms crossed and shoulders hunched. He was glaring down at the tabletop, silent since Gladstone revealed his findings. 

“ _ Louie _ ,” Gladstone said seriously, standing with arms akimbo. “Do you understand how dangerous your plan was? Why would you even try something like this?”

His youngest nephew muttered something he didn’t catch, and Gladstone sighed heavily. 

“ _ Louie _ _ —” _

“You always  _ lie _ !” Louie snapped, startling Gladstone into silence. He’d finally looked up from the table, and his eyes were brimming with tears. “I wanted to find someone who wouldn’t!”

Gladstone felt a pang in his chest at the sight of his nephew in such distress. 

“Lou _ — _ ” he tried to say, but it seemed Louie had more to get off his chest. 

“You always talk about Uncle Scrooge like he’s  _ dead _ , like Mom and Uncle Donald, but he lives  _ here _ , in Duckburg!” Louie cried with increasing fury, tears making hot tracks down his cheeks. “If you always say ‘family helps family,’ then how come you’re trying to keep us  _ away _ from our family?”

Gladstone sat down beside Louie and tried to put his arm around him. “C’mon, bud, you know I’d never try to _ — _ ” 

Louie shoved him away, practically jumping out of his seat. “ _ No _ ! I  _ hate _ you!”

He dashed out of the kitchen, and Gladstone heard the slam of his bedroom door only a few seconds later. 

Gladstone sighed, raising a hand to his forehead. He sat alone at the table for a few moments, before he heard the patter of two pairs of webbed feet entering the kitchen. 

“Uncle Gladstone?” Huey began hesitantly. 

Gladstone looked up at his two nephews with a reassuring smile, fighting a surge of guilt at their anxious expressions. 

“Dew, H Man,” Gladstone beckoned as he rose from the kitchen table. They walked over to him, and he ruffled the feathers on their head. “Why don’t the two of you get started on homework, while I go check on your bro?”

Huey and Dewey exchanged a glance. 

“Is Louie right?” Dewey asked. 

“About you trying to keep us from Uncle Scrooge?” Huey rubbed his arm, looking up at Gladstone uncertainly, but still finishing his brother’s question.

Gladstone sighed deeply, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“It’s a little more complicated than that, guys. I’ll explain everything later, after I talk to Louie, okay?”

They both nodded, albeit slowly, and Gladstone left the kitchen as they began unpacking their school bags. 

He stopped outside Louie’s bedroom door, knocking gently. 

“Can I come in, bud?” he asked. 

A few seconds ticked by at a snail’s pace before Gladstone heard a soft “yeah” through the door. 

Gladstone entered the dimly lit bedroom, closing the door quietly behind him. Louie didn’t seem to have bothered turning on any lights, the only illumination provided by the warm orange glow of the setting sun through the nearby window. 

He scanned his nephew’s bedroom briefly, the posters and scattered toys, things that identified it singularly as  _ Louie’s _ . The boys had always been very keen about distinguishing themselves as more than identical triplets.

His nephew himself was sitting on his unmade bed, curled up against the wall with his knees against his chest. He didn’t look up as Gladstone crossed the room. 

“Hey there, Lou,” he said softly, sitting on the edge of the bed. “You alright?”

Louie glanced up at him from under his hood, eyes red from crying. 

Gladstone sighed, smiling sadly, and he pushed himself back so he was sitting against the wall beside Louie. He put his arm loosely around the duckling, so he wouldn’t feel confined, but didn’t speak again for several seconds. 

After nearly a minute, Louie turned and buried his face against Gladstone’s chest. 

“Hey, kiddo,” Gladstone said quietly, cupping the back of his nephew’s head. 

“I don’t hate you,” Louie mumbled. 

Gladstone chuckled. “I know, Lou. And I’m sorry I yelled. You just really scared me, bud.”

They were quiet again, Gladstone rubbing Louie’s back intermittently as the hitch in his breathing gradually faded. 

Gladstone heard the door behind them creak open and the shuffling of his two elder nephews as they fought over who’d enter the room first. The bed soon dipped beside him under the weight of two more ducklings, and Gladstone turned slightly to wrap his arm around them as well. 

Louie was the first to break the silence again. 

“Uncle Gladstone...do you not like Uncle Scrooge?”

The gander rubbed his forehead. “It’s a little more complicated than that, Green Bean.”

“But you always talk about what an amazing adventurer he is,” Dewey pointed out, “like Mom and Uncle Donald.”

“He is,” Gladstone assured, “or,  _ was _ . But...having money, going on crazy trips, that doesn’t make you a good person. It didn’t make  _ me _ a good person. But your mom and Uncle Donald…”

Gladstone smiled fondly, looking down at each of the boys in turn. 

“They loved adventuring, but they loved each other more. They loved  _ you three _ more.”

“But...Uncle Scrooge?” Louie said. 

“Isn’t he family too?” Huey hedged. 

Gladstone was quiet for a long moment. For all his personal grudges against Scrooge, he knew it wouldn’t be fair to dump them on his nephews, to skew their perception of someone they’d idolized for so long so drastically. But still, he wouldn’t lie to them. 

“You’re Uncle Donald always said ‘family helps family,’” Gladstone quoted, “he was a total cornball, your uncle.”

The boys snickered. 

“But,” Gladstone went on, more seriously now, “Scrooge forgot this a lot. He let money and thrills matter more than family. And, well...someone that doesn’t care about family, isn’t really  _ family _ . Do you understand?”

Dewey looked disappointed as he nodded, Huey more visibly upset, but Louie looked shame-faced. 

“I’m sorry I wanted to leave,” he mumbled. 

“Hey, hey,” Gladstone was quick to reassure, squeezing Louie’s shoulder, “I don’t blame you for wanting to see how the other half lives. And…” he paused briefly, and hoped he wouldn’t come to regret his next words. 

“And maybe when you’re older I’ll take you to meet ol’ Scroogey. But for now, we’re all we’ve got.” 

Louie tightened his embrace around Gladstone, and Dewey and Huey joined him on the other side. 

“What’re you hugging me for?” he joked after a few moments, “Green Bean’s the one who got emotional.”

“What?” Louie sputtered as his brother’s expressions almost instantly became devious. “No, no I’m  _ fine—” _

His words ended on a yelp as Huey and Dewey dogpiled him, Gladstone deftly standing to avoid being trapped as well. 

“I’ll call you boys for dinner,” he singsonged as he existed through the bedroom door. 

Louie’s cry of “Uncle Gladstone, you  _ traitor _ !” followed him out into the hall, and he closed the door behind him. 

But instead of heading straight for the kitchen, Gladstone leaned against the wall, closing his eyes as all mirth left him. 

Yes, he was all the boys had. Not for the first time, he hoped he’d be enough. 


End file.
